UK: Tighter global supplies of barley helping to support markets

Tighter global supplies of barley are helping to support markets and reduce its discount to wheat.

Spot prices collected by Farmers Weekly on 23 August put feed barley at £152.40/t, a £16.80/t discount to feed wheat, closing the gap from month-earlier levels when wheat was at a £28/t premium.

Grain traders say there has been good demand for feed barley for use in animal feeds in the UK, with ADM reporting a strong demand domestically, particularly from the ruminant industry in the past few weeks.

However, new-crop barley is still struggling to find a bid in the export market, according to Frontier Agriculture.

“Feed barley is especially uncompetitive as new volume grows domestically as well as on the Continent. This is the result of prolonged adverse weather in northern and eastern Europe, which has affected quality,” said traders at Frontier.

UK feed wheat futures opened at £187/t on 23 August for the November contract, roughly in line with week-earlier levels.

Wheat markets are still being supported by uncertainty in the Black Sea region, but large global supplies are reportedly putting some pressure on prices.

The International Grains Council (IGC) has forecast total world grain production to be the second largest on record at 2,294m tonnes, up 1% on the year, due to higher maize forecasts.

Sebastien Mallet, chief executive officer at grain market analyst ODA, said world and domestic demand is finding ample and cheap supplies, with Russia leading the export market for wheat and Brazil for maize and soya.

Despite the Black Sea grain deal no longer being in force, Ukraine is considering using new routes to export. The first vessel since the deal ended managed to leave the region last week.

AHDB senior analyst Anthony Speight said: “There were also reports that Ukraine is finalising a plan with global insurers to cover Black Sea grain ships.”

The EU Commission’s crop monitoring bulletin for August put average wheat yields in the EU at 5.58t/ha, marginally down on the previous month, but still in line with the five-year average.

Rainfall has reportedly improved some crop conditions in northern Europe, but caused further delays to harvest.

However, dry conditions and heatwaves in Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic and Poland have affected crops.

The bulletin said thunderstorms in northern Italy, Slovenia and Croatia had also led to crop damage.

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